Galatians
5:13-26,
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto
liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed
that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the
things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told
you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no
law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one
another, envying one another.”
We
have been teaching on the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. We have already talked
about the first eight fruits of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, and meekness. Today we will conclude with the fruit of
temperance.
Remember
that these nine fruit are planted in the believer at the moment of salvation
and are replacements for the 17 works of the flesh. And as we die to self,
crucify our flesh, and walk in the Spirit, we will begin to see all nine of
these fruit of the Spirit evident in our daily lives. If you are not seeing
evidence of these fruit than one of two things is true. Either you’re not saved
and therefore do not have the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit within,
or you are not crucifying the flesh, dying to self, and walking in the Spirit.
As
we have said throughout this study, these nine fruit are not produced naturally
from within us, but are supernaturally produced by the Holy Spirit of God. They
are God given fruit to help us be what God saved us to be in order to carry out
His great commission in this world.
The word for temperance means “self-control.” Webster’s dictionary
defines temperance as:
1. Moderation; particularly, habitual
moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions;
restrained or moderate indulgence; as temperance in eating and drinking; temperance
in the indulgence of joy or mirth. Temperance in eating and drinking is opposed
to gluttony and drunkenness, and in other indulgences, to excess.
2.
Patience; calmness; sedateness; moderation of passion.
And so
temperance or self-control is not when I control my “self”. Temperance or self-control
is when the Holy Spirit controls my “self”. He must be in control if I am to be
a Spirit-filled or Spirit-controlled Christian!
Ephesians
5:17-18 says,
“Wherefore be
ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk
with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;”
We are
commanded by God to be filled with His Holy Spirit and therefore to be
controlled and influenced by Him and not led by other influences including
ourselves.
James 4:3-5
says,
“Ye ask, and
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will
be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?”
In other
words, God’s Holy Spirit wants to have the control in our lives. He is envious
of us when we try to do His work in our own strength and he lusts to do what
God placed Him in us to do, namely to fill, teach, empower, and control us. And
so temperance or self-control is when we allow the Holy Spirit to control us.
Temperance is not just us controlling ourselves.
Our biggest
problem in the Christian life is ourselves more than anyone else that we have
to deal with on a daily basis. The song says, “It’s me it’s me it’s me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Not
my father, not my brother, it’s me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”
D.L Moody
said, "I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride
and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God's law, the
Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride
and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God.
We
must be emptied before we can be filled." That sums up
what God’s Spirit can and wants to do in our lives.
A Christian
who is filled with God’s Spirit has evidence in their life of this fruit of
temperance or self-control. The fruit of self-control is one that we long for, yet few
attain it. In fact, most people do not even try because they can’t or don’t want to
say “no” to themselves. Most people in the world are out of control and even
a majority of believers show no evidence of this fruit in their lives.
Let’s look at
some things about this fruit of temperance or self-control:
#1) Self-control
requires great strength and surrender, because the hardest person to say “no” to is yourself.
Story:
M. Scott Peck writes in his book "The Road Less Traveled”: "I spent much of my ninth
summer on a bicycle. About a mile from our house the road went down a steep
hill and turned sharply at the bottom. Coasting down the hill one morning, I
felt my increasing speed causing me to feel ecstatic. To give up this ecstasy
by applying the brakes seemed an absurd self-punishment and so I resolved to
simultaneously retain my speed and negotiate the upcoming sharp curves. My
ecstasy ended seconds later when I was propelled a dozen feet into the air, off
the road, and into the woods. I was badly scratched and bleeding, and the front
wheel of my new bike was twisted beyond use from its impact against a tree. I
had been unwilling exercise self-control by giving up my ecstatic speed in the
interest of maintaining my balance around the corner. I learned, however, that
the loss of balance is ultimately more painful than the giving up what was
required to maintain balance.”
Our problem is that we do not want to hinder our so-called
enjoyment of life. We do not want to reduce the pleasure we have in life. We
can’t say no to ourselves and so, rather than tell ourselves to slow down; we
head into life’s curves traveling too fast only to find ourselves wrecked, scratched,
bruised, and bleeding.
We may say that we want God to control our lives and
we want His will for our lives and when we “seem” to give over the control to
Him, suddenly we somehow start to take back the reins of our lives and we are
now once again back in control. This is probably the hardest area of living the
Christian life that we as believers have to deal with on a daily basis.
We say we will trust the Lord to be the husband or
wife that God wants us to be and then we don’t read His word to see what being
a Godly wife or husband is.
We say that we care about the souls of our family,
friends, and co-workers but yet we never talk to anyone about the Lord.
We say that we will begin to give of our time,
talents, and treasure to the local church but we talk ourselves out of what God
and His Holy Spirit is telling us to do because we don’t have the time to be in
the services faithfully, we really don’t want to do whatever it is God told us
to do and we come up with excuses, and then we think we can’t afford to give of
our treasure because it’s so hard to part with.
The fruit of temperance or self-control is that
character trait of God’s Spirit that wants us to get out of the drivers seat of
our life and let Him have His way to direct us, lead us, and yes “control” us. Remember
self-control is really Holy Spirit control. We must get to the point in
our lives where we won’t be afraid to allow the Holy Spirit to control us, in
fact we should be afraid when anything else but the Holy Spirit controls us!
Listen to what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit to His
disciples,
John 14:15-18,
“If ye love
me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of
truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to
you.”
And down to John 14:25 & 26,
“These things
have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Look at John 15:26,
“But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.”
Look at John 16:7-13,
“Nevertheless
I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him
unto you. And when he is come, he will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of
righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth:
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak: and he will shew you things to
come.”
And so we must allow God’s Holy Spirit to control us
and fill us. We must remember that while it is best, it’s also the hardest
thing to say “no” to self. That takes great strength and surrender.
Next,
#2) Self-control
requires strength and surrender to do what must be done in the Christian life:
Most people blame procrastination for why they put off
doing the things that must be done. It’s not just that. The real reason we put
things off is a problem of self-control. We put off taking action because we
fear the results. We put off saying what needs to be said because we fear
rejection and confrontation. We put off making a decision because we have a
compulsion toward perfectionism and the fear of failure. So, instead of
exercising self-control, we give into fear. Instead of exercising self-control,
we put off the inevitable. Self-control requires great strength because
exercising self-control involves taking risks.
-The nation of Israel
exercised self-control by taking the first step of Faith and crossed the Red Sea!
-David exercised self-control when he took off running
towards Goliath by trusting God to win the battle. And he did.
-Daniel exercised self-control when he obeyed the Lord
and faced the Lion’s den and the fiery furnace rather than obeying man!
-And we all need self-control to do the things that
must be done in the Christian life! Self-control by allowing God’s Spirit to
control us and to follow His leading and not the leading of our flesh.
It’s sort of like the coach of a team. Hall of Fame
Football coach Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys said,
“The role of the coach is to make men do things they
don’t want to do, to achieve the results they want to achieve.”
Listen to what Paul said about doing the work of the
ministry and this self-control or temperance. Look at I Corinthians 9:24-27,
“Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run,
that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things (self controlled).
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I
therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the
air: But I keep under my body, and bring
it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others,
I myself should be a castaway.”
Paul was saying to these Corinthians, who by the way
had a problem with self-control, that it takes great strength and total
surrender to be temperate and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Paul teaches us there are five qualities of the
self-controlled, temperate or Spirit controlled life:
A). A self-controlled life has reachable
goals. (I Cor. 9:24)
“Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all, but one
receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.”
The goal for the athlete is to win the prize. The
prize is the motivation the athlete needs to undergo the training and
discipline. The NFL season is winding down. They have all played four
pre-season games, 16 regular season games, and now playoff games. The season
started back in August of 2007 and it is still moving on. Why would an athlete
put himself through all that torture. Some of you would say for the money and
you would be somewhat correct, but it’s also to win the ultimate prize, the
Vince Lombardi super bowl trophy as pro football’s best team.
One of the reasons most of us do not exercise
self-control is because we do not have a goal. There is no motivation to
discipline ourselves. We have nothing to shoot for. Or if we do have goals,
they tend to be either too vague or so unrealistic that we know within
ourselves that we can never achieve them.
-We know we want to accumulate wealth to take care of
our families, plan for retirement, to contribute to our church and other
charitable organizations. But our financial goals are too vague or too
unrealistic. We have no plan to help us reach our financial goals.
-We want to be healthy and we know what is good and
what is bad for us but have no specific goals regarding our health and so we fail
to discipline ourselves.
-We want our marriage to grow from good to great, but
have no specific goals to help us define what a great marriage is.
-We want to have a successful business, but without
specific goals, it will never happen.
-We want to be Spirit filled Christians who are bearing fruit to God’s glory,
but without specific spiritual goals, it will never happen.
-Goals are merely pie-in-the-sky dreams if we never
exercise self-discipline to make them become a reality. For the athlete to win
the prize, there will be times when he will have to say “no” to himself and
other times when he will have to do what he doesn’t want to do in order to have
a chance to obtain that prize.
What are your goals for your spiritual life, your marriage, your business, and
your finances? Take the time to write them out. If you know where you are
heading, it will be easier to exercise self-control. We must count the cost.
Listen to what Jesus had to say about setting goals
and reaching them in Luke 4:25-30,
“And there
went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have
sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is
not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man
began to build, and was not able to
finish.”
A self-controlled life has reachable goals.
B). A
Self controlled life involves discipline. (I Cor 9:25)
“And every
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
All athletes practice strict self-control. Once the
athlete knows the prize he longs to win, he begins training and preparing himself
for the day of competition. Discipline means to train. Athletes train their
bodies to compete. Persons who enter spelling bee competitions train their
minds to know the phonics rules and to memorize words. Discipline does not mean
punishment, although discipline may incorporate punishment in the plan.
Everyone has financial goals. In order to reach those goals, we begin a plan of
discipline. That discipline will include increasing our knowledge of money and
how money works. The plan of discipline will also include making connections
with people who can help us. These people may be financial planners, people we
respect, and others who can give us wise advice. Our plan of discipline will
also include decisions that require self-control. Every choice we make to spend
or not to spend money determines how quickly we reach our financial goals.
So you see, self control involves discipline. The same is true with you
spiritual goals, your marriage goals, and your business goals.
— Do you have a disciplined plan of to help you reach your goals? A
self-controlled life involves discipline.
C). A Self controlled life demands
focus on the prize. (I Cor 9:25 & 26)
“And every
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to
obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as
uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.”
Just as the athlete keeps focused on the prize for winning the competition,
Paul kept focused on his heavenly goal of eternal life. We too must focus on
what Christ did for us to obtain the gift of eternal life, He gave His all!
D). A
self-controlled life includes the whole person: mind, body, and soul. (I Cor 9:27)
”But I
keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
The battle begins with us being willing to give up our
own control of our lives and having the strength to allow God’s Holy Spirit to
control it. And so the battle begins in our minds, and then it effects what our
bodies do as well. Are we slaves to our minds and our desires or is God in
control and the Lord the master of our minds?
Self-control begins in the mind.
Proverbs 23:7 says,
“For as he
thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Paul wrote in Romans 12:1 & 2,
“I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but
be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God.”
Paul again writing in Philippians 4:8 said,
“Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be
any praise, think on these things.”
What you think about and allow to control you will
determine how much of this fruit of temperance will be evident in your life.
E).
Lastly, a self controlled life means total submission to the Master and his
plan.
Paul said he keeps his body under subjection in I
Corinthians chapter nine. In Galatians 5:24 he writes, “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts.”
Every athlete who excels does so because he has
completely submitted himself to a coach and the coach’s training plan. The only
way you and I can live a life of self-control is to totally surrender ourselves
to the Holy Spirit and his control. Remember we said that self-control is
control of the self. We cannot control our “selves”. The Holy Spirit is our
coach. He teaches, trains, corrects, and encourages us. When we yield to his
coaching, we can then and only then live a life of self-control. May God help
us in this area of being fruit bearing Christians.
Let’s pray.
